My Bookshelf: The Thirteenth Tale
Posted by Kate on January 29th, 2009. Filed under: My Bookshelf.The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Read: January 2009
Description:
Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s bookshop and finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved authors, Vida Winter. Gravely ill, Vida wants to recount her life story to Margaret before it is too late. The request takes Margaret by surprise–she doesn’t know the author nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels.
Late one night, while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer.
As Vida Winter tells her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more immersed in the strange and troubling story. In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets.
My Thoughts:
The Thirteenth Tale is a masterfully written book. Diane Sutterfield deftly mimics the gothic style and language of literary masters Charlotte and Emily Bronte. As an English major and avid reader, I am in awe of Sutterfield’s writing ability. She is skillful in using a combination of action, description and reflection that keeps the reader intrigued. The characters were rich and the plot and sub-plot lines well-developed.
However, I mistakenly picked up and put down this book too much. The thread of suspense is very delicate and my haphazard reading schedule did not allow for me to truly immerse myself in this book. I was expecting a much more grandiose “surprise” that the novel was obviously leading to from page one. Plus, to fully understand and empathize with the main characters, I felt the reader must actually have a twin or have lost a sibling, neither of which I can claim.
